The Guardian's critic Sean Michaels ranked "1+1" at number one on his list of The 10 Best Tracks of 2011.[36] The song was also ranked on The Guardian's writers' year-end list of Best Songs of 2011 at number 30.[37] Allison Stewart of The Washington Post placed the ballad at number one on her list of the Special Year-End Best-of Edition, writing that Knowles "just kills this otherwise unremarkable ballad. Her obvious pride in her abilities, in her Beyonce-ness, informs every note, but it doesn't seem showoff-y. It's just sweet."[38] On The Village Voice's 2011 year-end Pazz & Jop singles list, "1+1" was ranked at number 77.[39] The staff members of Pitchfork Media placed the "1+1" at number 26 on their list of The Top 100 Tracks of 2011, writing:
Following Beyoncé's work on "1+1" is like a journey to the center of her craft, a stripping away of every distraction until all that's left is her voice. Without it, "1+1" would be a muted ballad: Its simple guitar line and stardust-sprinkled strings serve no purpose other than to evoke a sense of familiar romantic intimacy, and then to elegantly step aside while Beyoncé delivers one of her most wonderfully impassioned performances ever. "1+1" possesses that slightly scary intensity that has been R&B's worst-kept secret weapon since Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing", but it also demonstrates perfectly how Beyoncé stands apart from every other big-chested diva getting her Whitney on. She lets the song sing through her with a clarity that is never clinical, a strength that never sabotages, and an expressiveness that is precisely as sentimental as its subject matter requires. Beyoncé is R&B's field marshal, demanding of her listeners and herself an absolute fidelity to the music's emotional possibilities, with a perfectly modulated vehemence that is as captivating as it is tyrannical.[14]
Writing for The New Yorker, Jody Rosen credited the jarring timbral and tonal variations on the song for giving a new musical sound that didn't exist in the world before Knowles. He further wrote, "If they sound 'normal' now, it's because Beyoncé, and her many followers, have retrained our ears."[40]
Straight off wikipedia, your UGLEE faves ain't doing it
I can think of a certain era which had more live promo in 1 week 